Laid down as a fleet carrier in 1941, USS Intrepid (CV-11) was one of a class of 24 vessels constructed during, and immediately after, the Second World War. As such she belongs to a remarkable group of ships - remarkable not for any great design innovation but for their proved effectiveness and reliability as warships and for the great size of the construction programs of which they formed a part.  In numbers of ships the Essex class was the largest class of fleet carriers ever constructed and as such could also claim to be the largest group of capital ships constructed during the steam age.  The FY40 (Financial Year 1940) program provided for 11, of which 5 - Essex (CV9), Yorktown (CV10), Intrepid (CV11), Lexington (CV16) and Bunker Hill (CV17) - were begun prior to the outbreak of war.  The remaining 6, together with 2 more provided under FY41, and an additional 13 provided under the wartime FY42 (10 units) and FY43 (3 units) were laid down during the war.  Of these ships no less than 17 had entered service by the end of the war while 7 were completed postwar and 2 cancelled.  Another 6 ships were included in FY44 but these were subsequently cancelled and were never laid down.

  The size of this class, and indeed the great size of the entire US war construction effort, not only reflected the enormous industrial capacity of the United States but also its ability to mastermind cooperative effort and the simplification of production requirements and methods.  In other words, as might be expected from the country that produced the Ford motor car, it amounted to mass production.  Early in the war it was decided to concentrate on the construction of existing warship designs, hence the Essex class represented the entire war production of fleet carriers.  Another class represented the entire war production of fleet carriers.  Another class, the Midways, was begun in 1943 but none saw service during the war.  Cruisers were largely represented by the 6" gun Cleveland class (of which no less than 52 were ordered) and the 8" Baltimore class, destroyers by the Fletcher and Gearing classes and so on.  By concentrating on such designs building yards could streamline production, resulting in some remarkably short construction times.  Intrepid herself was built in 20 months, while one Essex, the Franklin (CV13), was completed in just under 14 months.

  This system was applied to material and equipment as well as ship design and a high degree of standardization was adopted for such thing as steel sections and plates, ship fittings, machinery and armaments.  Production of AA weapons for example was almost entirely concentrated on the 5" 38, the 40mm Bofors and the 20mm Oerlikon - covering respectively the long, medium and close range defense requirements of the fleet.  Naturally there are exceptions - mostly in the latter part of the war when, with the main construction requirements covered, US designers began developing the next generation of ships and equipment based on the lessons of the war.

  The program was not, of course, without cost - accepting existing designs as standard also meant accepting their basic limitations, of which the most troublesome was their overall size.  The war resulted in many developments not envisaged when the ships were designed - the most obvious being the proliferation of radar and AA weapons which in turn required larger crews resulting in both substantially increased top weight and overcrowding of accommodation spaces.  Consequently the Essex class, and practically all other US warship types, were by 1945 suffering from a substantial reduction in their level of stability and hence survivability in the event of damage.  That this cost was acceptable in the circumstances is obvious from the success of Essex class in operations against the Japanese during 1943-45, when they provided the main air strength and striking power of the Pacific Fleet.

                          Taken from "Anatomy of the Ship The A/C Carrier Intrepid - Author: John Roberts